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! PETER VANCINI JACQUELINE M. SIDOR, JMS ART & PHOTO

“Having one more guy really helps,” Tom says, reclaiming a freshly cut barrel from Jeff and quickly drilling out holes for the plate.After they assemble a few drums, the guys turn their attention to tonight’s special project. Berkshire Brewing Company recently pro-

vided the guys with a keg of beer and, after draining it in the traditional way, they’ve decided to make it into a burn barrel. Jeff shows me the custom grill top that will be the barrel’s crown jewel. It’s a stunningly intricate cutout of the BBC logo, precise to a

thousandth of an inch, he tells me. The steel is a shade of gunmetal gray with subtle tints that shine blue and purple when the light hits it just right, a byproduct of the heat from the laser. Tom acknowledges that they have a habit of building barrels for companies they like and delivering them unannounced and free of charge, a practice he jokingly calls “reverse marketing.” They love the mostly happy, sometimes puzzled reactions they evoke from re-cipients and plan to do exactly this with the drum for BBC.The guys are all avid mountain bikers, hockey fans, and beer enthusiasts, and the roster of BumDrum customers reflects their pas-

sions. They’ve got an impressive following among professional hockey players, including a few NHL hall-of-famers. There are a pleth-ora of bike companies and breweries, including major brands like Coors and Budweiser, and smaller craft brewers. The guys recently dropped off a drum to Tree House Brewing, delivering it by bike.

“You get some funny looks when you deliver a barrel by bike,” Tom says. “But we figure, why not?”This ‘why not’ spirit seems to be a mantra of sorts for these guys. They admit they can’t quite figure out a way to make the endeavor a

full-time business, but they don’t really seem to be too worried about it. It’s a labor of love and they seem pretty content to make a few barrels, solicited or otherwise, just as long as they can break even and have a good time.“We’re going for the fame, not the fortune,” Jeff jokes, eliciting laughter from the other two.That’s not to imply that BumDrums hasn’t received some large orders. They once fulfilled an order of 50 barrels for Budweiser, but

orders like that are few and far between. Most customers order one or two at a time.For now, the guys will have to keep their day jobs, which all share a common thread: Each of them works with logos and branding

in some respect. Jim runs a sign shop. Tom and Jeff both work in promotional marketing, designing and producing merchandise for companies. All three have a keen eye for detail and clearly take pride in their craft, pouring over each plate, contemplating whether it would’ve been better this way or that.

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The company was conceived almost accidentally one October night in 2010 when they hand cut a drum for a birthday party. A few friends were impressed, and before they knew it, the word had spread and they began receiving requests. They say they immediately recognized the original-ity of their idea, but still considered it more of a way to get out of the house and have fun build-ing things with each other. They began printing up hats and stickers to give away to customers. They started bringing their drums to pond hockey tournaments throughout the region. Pretty soon, they began seeing people they didn’t recognize sporting their merchandise.“Now it’s to the point that we have no idea who

these people are,” Tom says. “But they’re big fans of our products and that is really, really cool.”The company has certainly taken more than its

fair share of criticism from doubters over the years, but they’ve undeniably created a phenom-enon. “The concept came from kind of a whimsical idea

which is kind of neat,” Tom says. “It’s something that we all created. It’s our own. There wasn’t a blueprint and we didn’t knock anybody off.”“This idea we had just from all hanging out to-

gether somehow evolved into something that actually requires accounting and insurance,” Jeff says. “None of us really want to deal with any of that. We just want to hang out, make drums and have them look cool.”Having spent some time with Jeff, Tom, and

Jim, I can tell you that BumDrums are manufac-tured in the same spirit in which they’re to be enjoyed. They’re made by people who love having fun and being outside with friends. Every step of the process is done in good humor and with a joke. There’s a spirit of originality and indepen-dence that prevails within the group and they of-ten seem to make business decisions based on the potential for fun. The guys have garnered themselves a loyal fol-

lowing, which seems to both humble and bewil-der them a little, but it’s easy to see why they’re so popular. People seem to recognize that the company is about more than manufacturing burn barrels.“It’s a lifestyle,” says Tom. He’s only half kidding.

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(L-R) TOM, JEFF AND JIM . BUMDRUMS.COM